1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to a micro server, a method of allocating a Media Access Control (MAC) address, and a computer readable recording medium, and more particularly, to a micro server which can allocate a real MAC address to each of a plurality of virtual apparatuses, a method of allocating a MAC address, and a computer readable recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the Internet and Intranet technology has been developed, there has been an increasing demand on a server technology to process mass data at a high speed. In order to meet this demand, a rack mount type cluster server technology has been introduced. However, the rack mount type cluster server technology has a problem that the server has a large volume and consumes much power, and puts a limit to expanding a system because processor modules are connected through a cable.
A processor module is a server that has been developed to solve such problems and refers to a thinly modularized additional server that is inserted into a body of a micro server system to operate without being stacked like the rack mount type server which has horizontally long rack servers stacked. The processor module may be termed as a high density server in that it can allow a plurality of servers to be inserted and installed in a small space. The processor module has a core element of the server, such as one or more Central Processing Units (CPUs), a memory apparatus, and an operating system, embedded therein, and is supported with power, input and output, additional apparatuses, and various control functions by a main body to serve as a server.
Such a micro server uses I/O virtualization since a plurality of processor modules share a single I/O device. Each processor module requires a MAC address to communicate with an external apparatus even when the I/O virtualization is applied. A conventional method generates a virtual MAC address based on a single real MAC address, and allocates the virtual MAC address to a virtual apparatus (that is, the processor module).
However, the conventional method has the following problems when an S/W license authenticating method based on the MAC address is required. When a network controller provided in the server is replaced, a MAC address of a network apparatus is also changed. Accordingly, when a software (S/W) authenticated program is operated in the virtual apparatus based on the MAC address, a software (S/W) license should be authenticated again due to replacement of the network.
In particular, it is difficult to predict what MAC address will be generated in each virtual apparatus. Therefore, when a Multi Root-Input Output Virtualization (MR-IOV) function is used or when a connection structure between the virtual apparatus of the network controller and a host is changed, the MAC address of the virtual apparatus may be changed and thus a problem may arise when the MAC address-based S/W license authenticating method is used.